The Obama administration is promoting a new social media takedown of former Vice President Dick Cheney— an outspoken critic of the administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and five other world powers.
Cheney, the administration said on its official social media accounts, was “wrong then, wrong now” on his assessment of the Iraq War’s impact and his take on the Iran nuclear deal.
“Vice President Dick Cheney opposes the Iran nuclear deal. If his reasoning sounds familiar, it's because we've heard it from him before on the Iraq war,” the White House said on its YouTube channel.
In the video, which included Cheney’s March 16, 2003 appearance on “Meet the Press”, Cheney is shown saying that American forces would be “greeted as liberators”. There were also his comments in August 2002 that “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction” followed by multiple clips of journalists pressing him on these points over the years.
Cheney has been vocal in his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal.
During his 45 minute speech at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Cheney attacked what he sees as concessions made in "secret talks" which preceded the negotiations, the lack of inspection of military sites, the side agreements, the billions of dollars that will be restored to Iran, that country's ties to terrorists and the threat Iran will pose to the region and America.
"With the removal of restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program this agreement will give Iran the means to launch a nuclear attack on the US homeland,” Cheney said.
He predicted that the agreement "by legitimizing the Iranian enrichment program for the first time ever, the deal will likely accelerate nuclear proliferation as other nations demand the same right."
Over the past several months, the White House has fiercely defended the Iran nuclear deal in tough congressional hearings, speeches and interviews with the press against tough questions from skeptics. Throughout August, members of Congress have announced where they stand on the deal, which was sent to Congress by President Barack Obama back in July.
The deadline for Congress to act is Sept. 17.
